Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uwm.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!stevelee
From: stevelee@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (The Anti-Theist Named Steve)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: biotech weapons
Message-ID: <1030@uwm.edu>
Date: 14 Nov 89 07:24:56 GMT
References: <60608@tiger.oxy.edu>
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Reply-To: stevelee@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (The Anti-Theist Named Steve)
Organization: Catatoni Ignoramus University-Mad Scientist Division
Lines: 34

In article <60608@tiger.oxy.edu> palosaari@oxy.edu (Jedidiah Jon Palosaari) writes:
>Could a biotech weapon be made that would disrupt DNA replication etc.
>using a varient of DNase?

	The only way I can see to make a DNAse variant biotech weapon
	(hope it never happens to be honest), is to somehow attach it
	to vaporized DMSO-which is a kind of super solvent.  That's
	the stuff kids put LSD into at Dead concerts and spray people 
	with to give them a rather unexpected trip.

	DMSO carries just about anything with it across the skin.

	But, to be honest, I would think a strong mutagen like ethidium
	bromide, which interferes with replication by getting into the
	spaces between the strands of the double helix, causing a 
	misreading in the replication and transcription process.  

	Where ethidium bromide would be better as a weapon is that:

	(a) it needs no outside solvent to do some serious mutagenic
	    damage.
	(b) it is not as prone to being broken down in the stomach
	    (or so I've been told) if ingested.  DNAse is pretty 
	    sensitive to heat and extremes in acidity.

				-stevelee-

				-I am the Anti-Theist-

|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Steven Lee Pearson         	| HISTORY SHOWS AGAIN AND AGAIN HOW NATURE   |
| stevelee@csd4.csd.uwm.edu	| POINTS OUT THE FOLLY OF MEN.		     |
| (414) 962-4828	     	| (from "Godzilla" by the BOC)		     |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|